I love reading salty HN comments.
Debt (credit) is and will be a crucial part of any functioning economy and society. It's been around for millennia [0]
[0]The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest is a wonderful book on subject.
How to become a debt buyer
21–30 of 83 posts
Re: How to become a debt buyer
#22Ask yourself: Am I ready to be a bottom feeder on the lowest rung of society, rifling through garbage in the hopes of squeezing some poor schlub out of a few bucks?
I’m tempted to do this, just to then turn around and send a letter to the debtors saying that I will take no attempts to collect this debt and you do not need to pay.
As noted, there are some orgs trying to actually discharge debts this way. You should try hooking up with one of them, they probably know what they legal/administrative tasks to do it are.
Re: How to become a debt buyer
#23I want to buy my friends debt for cheap. What's the usual discount on this?
Re: How to become a debt buyer
#24Interesting. If my company also buys debt, can I purchase debt, then fail at collections and deduct the lost debt? Then I can run a 501c3 that has some revenue-generating side that is offset entirely by intentionally failed debt collection and it's free to get people out of debt. Actually, at that point you don't even have to run a 501c3 because you'll have no taxes to pay by offsetting all your profits with debt.
At that point, it'll be way easier to just run a traditional LLC and you won't need 501c3 reporting stuff.
Re: How to become a debt buyer
#25This is currently, and for obvious reasons, trending towards a thread about how evil the debt collection industry is. That's a shame, because there's a lot of interesting stuff to learn from the mechanics of the debt collection business, and it's stuff you can put to use to protect yourself (and others) from its worst abuses. There are "is" arguments and there are "oughts". We probably all agree on the "oughts", at l…
I would be interested if they at least said "Yeah, we're shitbags, but that's just how it is, and someone's gotta collect delinquent debt". What I'm not okay with is putting in shit like this: > The Debt Buying and Debt Collection industries can be a very rewarding career if it's right for you. It is also a risky business to be in and has a somewhat negative connotation among some groups because of a few people/compa…
I certainly wouldn't call it noble, but neither are 95% of other professions.
If you say you'll pay a debt, you should pay it. A necessary and IMO objectively good consequence of that is if you try to shirk that responsibility, someone somewhere is going to try to find you and try to collect. That doesn't by definition make anyone (including the person with delinquent debt) a bad person.
Re: How to become a debt buyer
#26This is currently, and for obvious reasons, trending towards a thread about how evil the debt collection industry is. That's a shame, because there's a lot of interesting stuff to learn from the mechanics of the debt collection business, and it's stuff you can put to use to protect yourself (and others) from its worst abuses. There are "is" arguments and there are "oughts". We probably all agree on the "oughts", at l…
I don't think its "a shame" at at all. The obvious and most important issue here is that the debt collection industry is evil and immoral. Those "worst abuses" aren't outliers, they're standard practice. "Abuses" are how you make money in that industry.
Re: How to become a debt buyer
#27This is currently, and for obvious reasons, trending towards a thread about how evil the debt collection industry is. That's a shame, because there's a lot of interesting stuff to learn from the mechanics of the debt collection business, and it's stuff you can put to use to protect yourself (and others) from its worst abuses. There are "is" arguments and there are "oughts". We probably all agree on the "oughts", at l…
I would be interested if they at least said "Yeah, we're shitbags, but that's just how it is, and someone's gotta collect delinquent debt". What I'm not okay with is putting in shit like this: > The Debt Buying and Debt Collection industries can be a very rewarding career if it's right for you. It is also a risky business to be in and has a somewhat negative connotation among some groups because of a few people/compa…
A debt collector who exclusively purchases corporate debt to collect isn't the person who's calling my parents to harass them about a surprise medical bill. There may indeed be "a few people" relative to the industry as a whole who are doing the "shitbag" thing.
Re: How to become a debt buyer
#28I love reading salty HN comments. Debt (credit) is and will be a crucial part of any functioning economy and society. It's been around for millennia [0] [0]The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest is a wonderful book on subject.
I'm not opposed to debt. Debt makes the economy run, it's where 99% of the US money comes from! What I'm opposed to is the practice of harassing poor people who don't understand what debt is until you can squeeze the last of their savings out, all so you can make a quick buck.
Re: How to become a debt buyer
#29I wrote this article years ago. I can't believe it's on HN today. As someone who spent almost a decade trying to run as ethical an agency as possible, I realized that there's no room for people who want to operate the right way.
I could go on for days about all of the crazy stuff I saw while I was involved but leaving the debt industry was the best decision I ever made. Terrible industry, terrible people.
Re: How to become a debt buyer
#30I love reading salty HN comments. Debt (credit) is and will be a crucial part of any functioning economy and society. It's been around for millennia [0] [0]The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest is a wonderful book on subject.
Not sure anyone is contesting the idea that debt is a useful tool, merely the fact that these companies are typically predatory, preying on people who typically--can't pay their debts. In a country where medical care is expensive and not government-insured, it is sensible to question the societal value of debt collectors, which is all that is happening here.